Charles Leclerc angry with Q3 lap on Ferrari debut

Charles Leclerc

Leclerc angry with Q3 lap on Ferrari debut

P5 for Charles.

Matthew Scott

Saturday 16 March 2019 11:41

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Charles Leclerc gave a scathing assessment of his own Q3 performance after qualifying fifth for the Australian Grand Prix. Leclerc was P1 in the first section of qualifying, but was unable to maintain performance through the sessions on his Ferrari debut.

Leclerc lines up on the third row alongside the Haas of Romain Grosjean, having seen Max Verstappen stick his Red Bull between the Monegasque and his teammate Sebastian Vettel.

The 21-year-old – who will become Ferrari's second youngest racer in Sunday's race, was two tenths down Vettel, something he attributed to his own performance.

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"Very disappointed with myself," said Leclerc. "I was not here when I had to in Q3. It's all up to me.

"I did a very bad job in the last run of Q3 and unfortunately it showed on the lap time.

Happy with my Q1 and Q2 laps. But disappointed with my lap in Q3. Some mistakes from my side. Tomorrow is the race, let's push to have a good one ???? pic.twitter.com/5ih57GXxSm
— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) March 16, 2019

"That's life. I will learn from it and I'll come back stronger."

Summing up his final Q3 lap, Leclerc said: "I locked my front wheel in the first corner of the second lap and I locked the front wheel and I lost quite a bit of time.

"Then overall the lap was pretty poor. I did some mistakes here and there."

"Obviously there's the gap to Mercedes that I can't really explain for now and that's why we have to work very hard.

"But on my side, I didn't do the job and there was definitely a bit of time, but the top two was unreachable.

"I think the potential to be top three was there."